Oil burner

ABSTRACT

A sealing device for locating the internal assembly of a guntype oil burner within the gun barrel, comprising a conical or tapered, thin-walled sleeve arranged coaxially on the inner surface of the gun barrel and engaged by a mating, coaxial disc associated with the internal assembly.

United States Patent Fluornoy et al.

[ Feb. 15, 1972 [54] OIL BURNER [72] inventors: Norman E. Fluornoy, Richmond; Earl W. McPeak, Jr., Highland Springs, both of [73] Assignee: Texaco Inc., New York, N.Y.

[22] Filed: Oct. 5, 1970 [211 Appl. No.: 78,070

[ 52] US. Cl ..239l407 HHH Primary Examiner--M. Henson Wood, Jr,

Assistant Examiner-Edwin D. Grant Attorney-Thomas H. Whaley, Carl G. Reis and L. H. Phelps, Jr.

[5 7] ABSTRACT A sealing device for locating the internal assembly of a guntype oil burner within the gun barrel, comprising a conical or tapered, thin-walled sleeve arranged coaxially on the inner surface of the gun barrel and engaged by a mating, coaxial disc associated with the internal assembly.

4 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PAFENFEDFEB 75 I972 IIHHII FIG. 4

OIL BURNER The present invention relates to an oil burner and more specifically to an assembly detail for sealing and locating the air control plate in the blast tube of the burner.

One of the problems of the household or commercial guntype oil burner concerns the kind of assembly which is resorted to by the service personnel in conducting ordinary service and maintenance. This may involve withdrawal, adjustment and replacement of the internals such as the air plate, nozzle, electrodes, etc. In normal maintenance this requires their insertion into the barrel of the burner into accurately fitting relationship therewith.

It has the special limitation that this type of work is frequently done under relatively adverse conditions, in cramped quarters and in the presence of dust and other foreign matter.

The provision of a fixed shoulder to receive the air plate assembly may result in substantial air leakage and does not enable any flexibility of assembly.

It has been proposed to arrange the air plate assembly so that its outwardly facing recess around its periphery receive an O-ring or washer. This, however, is dependent upon the flexibility of the O-ring or the washer, which, in the presence of internal irregularities in the tube, corrosion or dirt, can become seriously ineffectual.

Also, it has been found difficult to provide a sufficiently pliant material which can at the same time endure and sustain the high temperatures which may be encountered at the blast tube.

The present invention is particularly concerned with the fitting of the air control plate or the burner so that they are centered and held in proper operative position without undesired air leakage. This is of particular significance since not only is it important to locate the plate properly but it must form a reasonably good seal with the wall of the burner tube. Moreover it, in many instances, performs the very important function of centering and supporting the remainder of the assembly, such as, for example, the nozzle and electrodes.

The present invention provides a relatively resilient, annular, tapered sheet member coaxially inside the burner tube to receive and center the air plate assembly within the blast tube thereof. It realizes a certain resiliency and flexibility by virtue of the fact that the tapered member has a relatively thin wall. It also serves not only to center the air plate accurately within the blast tube but can accurately locate the air control components with respect to the end cone within reasonably narrow axial limits. Within this range any reasonably slight force in the direction toward the end cone wedges the periphery of the air plate against the inside wall of the sealing device.

Referring now to the figures of the present drawing wherein one embodiment of the present invention is shown in greater detail,

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal vertical section taken diametrically through the blast tube of the gun-type burner constructed in accordance with the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a transverse section taken on the line of 22 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a detailed sectional view taken axially and diametrically of the tapered seal plate and FIG. 4 is a section taken diametrically through an alternate configuration of the device.

The details of the remainder of the burner, including blower, ignition control, pumps, etc., since they are conventional, and do not per se incorporate the present invention, are not disclosed.

Tubular gun barrel or blast tube 10, in the present embodiment, terminates in end cone 12 mounted on the tube as at 14. The details of the end cone, which form no part of the present invention, include internal vanes 16, spirally arranged to produce a turbulent vortex through the end cone.

Fuel oil tube 18 terminates in nozzle 20 which is supported by the air plate assembly 22 which, in turn, supports insulators 24 and electrodes 26. The air plate assembly, as is shown more clearly in FIG. 2, comprises an inner air plate 28 and a control plate 30 which are held flatwise together by fasteners 32.

Corresponding apertures in the two plates provide for controlled airflow through the tube, and since these apertures are identical in arrangement and conformation they provide an ideal arrangement for controlling or metering the airflow by simply rotating the plates relative to one another, about their common axis. Thus, more specifically, a series of annularly disposed, equally spaced peripheral, semicircular apertures 36 in the two plates permit the main flow of air. An annular series of considerably smaller apertures 38 permits a central flow of air about the nozzle. Suitable elongated apertures 40 about.

the insulators 24 permit relative adjustment of the two plates.

Thus the operator in known ways, simply by loosening fasteners 32 can rotate the two plates 28 and 30 with respect to one another to select an appropriate airflow through the end cone.

The present invention contemplates a resilient tapered seal 44 shown in FIG. 2 and detailed more fully in FIGS. 3 and 4.

The annular tapered seal or insert 44 is formed of relatively thin wall material such, for example, as mild steel, 0.020 to 0.030 inch thick. Temperature limitations preclude the use of many plastic materials, although many other metals and some high-temperature plastics can be substituted. It is composedof an annular, axially extending wall 46 tapering in a generally forward direction toward the tip of the burner.

This relatively thin tapered wall is supported and maintained by an inwardly extending radial flange 48. As shown in FIG. 1, the flange 48 abuts the extremity of the periphery of the end cone 12 and thus is axially and longitudinally fixed within the gun barrel. Also, it is preferred to bevel the opposite extremity of the annular wall 46 as at 50, preferably to something in the nature of a knife edge, to permit firm contact with the inner surface of the blast tube or barrel 10.

Of particular importance in connection with the present invention is the taper or slope angle of the tapered seal 44. More specifically, the present burner, as previously intimated, relates to a type of burner provided with a means of access located adjacent to the rear portion of the blast tube so that the internal assembly, namely the tube 18, nozzle, electrodes and metering plates can be inserted simply by opening a suitable closure and inserting them from the rear. This means that the tapered seal member 44 desirably is impinged by the plates 28 and 30 at a predetermined position along the axis of the blast tubes at which position the burner tip or nozzle 20 and its associated parts are in proper, predetermined axial location.

With a low taper or slope angle of the seal 44, the plates 28 and 30 may be forced axially further than is needed to make a good seal, in which position the plate may be wedged irito the blast tube, making it extremely difficult to remove the assembly from the blast tube when this becomes necessary.

Conversely, an excessively large angle gives the member 44 the effect of an abutment such that it is not compliant enough to make a good seal. Thus air leakage will occur and the desirably high pressure of the plenum chamber cannot be maintained. Therefore, in practical terms and using a seal described it has been found that the preferable taper angle falls somewhere in the range of about 6 to 15 although angles of as low as 4 may be satisfactory.

The term slope angle" as used herein is intended to mean the angle which the sidewall of the tapered conical seal makes with a line parallel to the axis of the blast tube. This, of course, would be the same as the angle which the tapered wall makes with an axially extending cylindrical wall section of the blast tube. Thus it would be the angle clearly represented in FIG. 3 between the section of the wall 46 and the section of the blast tube 10.

The modified form of annular insert collar shown in FIG. 4 comprises a flange 48a, corresponding to the flange 48 of the previous embodiment, and tapered section 44a, terminating in a knife edge 50a.

The tapered section of 44a is separated from the flange 48a by a coaxially extending annular wall 51.

lOlO23 07 In this embodiment the peripheral margin of the collar 48a is in axial alignment with the surface 50a with dimensions, which, in turn, conform with the internal diameter of the blast tube. This therefore enables the collar to be received within the blast tube in the same manner as the previously described collar.

We claim:

1. In a gun-type oil burner of the type having a gun barrel supplied with a blast of air, a fuel nozzle supplied with liquid fuel and a circular air plate assembly transversely occupying said blast tube and controlling the airflow through the blast tube, v

the improvement which comprises means for affixing and centering said air plate assembly coaxially and longitudinally within said blast tube, comprising a collar of relatively thin-walled, annular, flexible sheet material disposed coaxially on the inner surface of said blast tube and tapered in a direction toward the extremity of said blast tube,

means supporting said tapered wall at its narrower extremity, said collar having an intermediate diameter to engage the periphery margin of said air plate at a predetermined intermediate axial location thereof.

2. A gun-type oil burner of the class having a blast tube furnished with a blast of air under pressure, a fuel nozzle supplied with a liquid fuel in the vicinity of the downstream extremity of said blast tube and an air plate assembly transversely disposed within the blast tube between said source of said blast of air and said fuel nozzle comprising means for metering and controlling the airflow through the blast tube,

the improvement which comprises means for centering said air plate assembly coaxially and longitudinally within said blast tube comprising a tapered insert snugly fitting within said blast tube and composed of an annular sheet material coaxially disposed within said blast tube and tapered inwardly in a downstream direction toward the extremity of said blast tube, said tapered insert having major and minor diameters, respectively larger and smaller than the diameter of said circular air plate assembly whereby said taper is engaged by the periphery of said circular air plate at a predetermined axial location along said taper. 3. A gun-type oil burner as defined in claim 2 wherein said taper has a slope angle in the range from about 4 to 15.

4. A gun-type oil burner as defined in claim 2 wherein said taper has a slope angle in the range from about 6 to 15. 

1. In a gun-type oil burner of the type having a gun barrel supplied with a blast of air, a fuel nozzle supplied with liquid fuel and a circular air plate assembly transversely occupying said blast tube and controlling the airflow through the blast tube, the improvement which comprises means for affixing and centering said air plate assembly coaxially and longitudinally within said blast tube, comprising a collar of relatively thin-walled, annular, flexible sheet material disposed coaxially on the inner surface of said blast tube and tapered in a direction toward the extremity of said blast tube, means supporting said tapered wall at its narrower extremity, said collar having an intermediate diameter to engage the periphery margin of said air plate at a predetermined intermediate axial location thereof.
 2. A gun-type oil burner of the class having a blast tube furnished with a blast of air under pressure, a fuel nozzle supplied with a liquid fuel in the vicinity of the downstream extremity of said blast tube and an air plate assembly transversely disposed within the blast tube between said source of said blast of air and said fuel nozzle comprising means for metering and controlling the airflow through the blast tube, the improvement which comprises means for centering said air plate assembly coaxially and longitudinally within said blast tube comprising a tapered insert snugly fitting within said blast tube and composed of an annular sheet material coaxially disposed within said blast tube and tapered inwardly in a downstream direction toward the extremity of said blast tube, said tapered insert having major and minor diameters, respectively larger and smaller than the diameter of said circular air plate assembly whereby said taper is engaged by the periphery of said circular air plate at a predetermined axial location along said taper.
 3. A gun-type oil burner as defined in claim 2 wherein said taper has a slope angle in the range from about 4* to 15* .
 4. A gun-type oil burner as defined in claim 2 wherein said taper has a slope angle in the range from about 6* to 15* . 